Calcium is a major component of bones, but is often in short supply in daily diet. Therefore, problems such as osteoporosis, e.g., a decrease in bone mass due to a reduced bone density and a considerable decrease in bone strength, can arise.
In view of this, there has been a demand for means for enabling an easy intake of an appropriate amount of calcium. As such means, calcium-containing mamegashi (a confection made by coating beans with wheat, sugar, or other materials) is proposed (see, PATENT DOCUMENT 1).
Mamegashi is generally produced by attaching layers of kanbai-ko (a type of glutinous rice flour) and/or wheat to, for example, soybeans with syrup, roasting the soybeans, and then seasoning the soybeans (see, for example, PATENT DOCUMENT 2). Specifically, in this process, the surfaces of the soybeans are coated with syrup mixed with milk calcium, then wheat flour or glutinous rice flour is attached to these surfaces to form layers, and then the soybeans are roasted. After the roasting, the soybeans are further coated with cocoa by using syrup, and then the soybeans are dried.
In this manner, coating the strong-tasting milk calcium with layers of flour, cocoa, or other materials enables an easy intake of calcium.
Calcium is preferably taken together with magnesium, and the calcium:magnesium ratio is preferably 2:1.